E-marketing is developing into a fast and effective way to reach a high volume of potential clients through cost-effective cyber advertising messages. For e-marketing to be effective, it must be targeted and useful to the potential client. Care must also be taken to ensure your e-marketing does not fall into a “spamming” or “unwanted e-mail” category.

Determine your target market and your target demographic. This is the first step of any effective marketing campaign. Your target market is the specific group of people you are marketing to to promote your products and services.

Design your e-marketing message, tailored to your target demographic. E-marketing messages can be simple and straightforward, using text only, or elaborate and animated, incorporating video clips, embedded links and attention-grabbing sounds and graphics. Remember, the more involved the message, the more costly it is likely to be from a design standpoint, and the longer it will take to send and to download.

Develop copy for your message that is short yet engaging. Some of the most effective e-marketing campaigns don’t simply try to sell a product or service, but offer something of value to a potential customer. For example, if you are an insurance company, rather than send out e-marketing solicitation messages, consider sending out an industry newsletter with a marketing component attached. Provide tips on how to lower insurance rates and provide a simple form for requesting a consultation. In this sense, potential clients feel they are getting something of value in return for viewing your e-marketing message.

Institute a tracking program into your e-marketing message that allows you to track how many potential customers view and open your message. You may even opt for a more expansive tracking program that helps you calculate how many people who view your message and go on to make a purchase. This is an especially valuable tool for e-commerce sites and will help you determine the effectiveness of your campaign.

Create an e-mail marketing list to which to deliver your e-marketing message. You can solicit new recipients by asking for e-mail contact information on your website or in personal transactions, or you can purchase e-mail lists from commercial advertising companies.

Develop a schedule for distributing your e-marketing mail. Depending on the nature of your marketing plan, you may opt to send weekly, monthly or bi-monthly messages. Overwhelming potential clients with too much mail can be a turn-off, so always include an “opt out” feature in your message or give consumers the option of determining how frequently they would like to receive communications from you.

Follow up on or respond to all responses to your e-marketing campaign quickly and efficiently.

Warning

Under the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act, businesses must be identified in all forms of e-mail marketing, and inaccurate or false subject lines in e-mail messages are not allowed. All commercial advertising e-marketing messages must be identified as such, and consumers must be given the option to stop receiving future e-mails.